Look very VERY closely at the following photo.
One is an image of an Apple watch... but believe it or not, one is a vector based graphic design that I created in Adobe Illustrator.
Can you tell which is which? Photo-realism is a very intricate style that requires a LOT of detail. Despite the amount of time this took me to complete, I loved the process and gained a much better understanding of creating highlights and shadows and using clipping masks in Adobe Illustrator because of this challenging experience.
Still don't believe me?
Here is my "outline preview" in Adobe Illustrator.
Doesn't look like much, but it consists of lots of layering, clipping masks, and gradients (which took me a while to get the hang of).
Just to add a little more value to my final product, I'd like to show you some of my process.
Here are some of my sketches. My goal with the sketches was to fully understand the makeup of the Apple watch so that I knew exactly how every curve and line was meant to be when I started designing the watch digitally.
The following image was my first draft. I honestly felt so proud of my progress at this point, but looking back on it, I had so much work left to do! At this point in the project, my graphic was still obviously in the "graphic" phase and nowhere near photo-realistic. I mean, just look at that knob on the top right! Makes me cringe a little bit.
But after much critique, adjustments, and TIME, I reached this final product:
I am SO happy with how this turned out and I cannot even express to you how much I learned through this process! I challenge EVERY designer to tackle the challenge of "Skeuomorphism" or "photo-realism" because I guarantee you will learn more than you expect.
I hope you enjoyed my design! It was originally published on my website at:
http://www.sarahjanele.com/vector-watch-photo-realism/
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